


Everybody's Friend [3/52]

by andrea_deer



Series: 52 aspec drabbles/ficlets of 2017 [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Aromantic Character, F/M, Greg POV, M/M, Mentions of Sex, No Beta, Past Infidelity, Quoiromantic Character, aspec character, aspec drabbles, hints at crossover that are there only if you care to see them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 15:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9826013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andrea_deer/pseuds/andrea_deer
Summary: I feel like I'm setting up for a life with my best mate and-""Sounds horrible," agreed Greg sarcastically and she just looked at him until he nodded silently, letting her continue."It's not horrible, it's... fine. But it's not all that it could've been and I- I think I want to try to find that. I think I want to find someone I can love as my lover, husband, not only my best mate. You know it's not the same, you have to."3rd of 52 aspec drabbles/ficlets | (Yes, I know, they're getting longer. Sue me.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> This one is a bit trickier, since I usually don't headcanon Greg as on on aro-spectrum, but I was wondering if I could write him like that and I got this idea. In this story Greg is somewhere on the aro-spectrum, probably cruising between aromantic and quoiromantic. I hope you will enjoy it! :)
> 
> Also, my only steady beta is [reverso](http://www.reverso.net/spell-checker/english-spelling-grammar/). Fair warning. ;)

Since when he was a kid Greg was great at making friends wherever he went. From orphanage kids, foster families and school right to the complete strangers that he just started chatting with, while slightly buzzed waiting for a night bus. Despite his opinion of a bad boy or lazy punk, he ended up welcomed in pretty much every social circle he bothered to hang out with. Dependent and loyal to the fault he got in trouble half as often for his own merit as he did for covering others or trying to help them out. 

What baffled both him and his friends was how this ease with friends completely failed to translate into anything close to a romantic success.  
Until he was in his twenties, his longest romance lasted four months and he was still pretty sure it was mostly due to the fact that while still being stuck in the closet Jake's options were severely limited.

Then, he finally thought he managed to trick the system by simply dating one of his best mates. They lived together, drove bikes together. She helped him get his life on track, he helped her relax a bit from the shackles of the responsibilities she put on herself. He bought a ring about a week before she broke things off with him.

"But we're good together, aren't we?" he asked, utterly confused, staring at her as she sat opposite him, awkwardly watching her hands more than him.

He was really sure he finally managed to end his bad luck with romance. Sure, it wasn't _exactly_ as he imagined when he was a kid, but he was quite sure the whole business with butterflies in the stomach and going all silly for someone was highly exaggerated. Kim was absolutely brilliant and they fit so well together, they've been best friends for ages. He hardly thought there was anyone who knew him better than she, who fit better with him.

She looked at him carefully and then slowly took his hands in hers, calming him down. She was great at that too, he thought bitterly.

"I honestly can say that you're my closest friend," she said carefully.

"And how exactly is that a bad thing?!"

"It's not, Greg, You know it's not. But I- I feel like I'm setting up for a life with my best mate and-"

"Sounds horrible," agreed Greg sarcastically and she just looked at him until he nodded silently, letting her continue.

"It's not horrible, it's... fine. But it's not all that it could've been and I- I think I want to try to find that. I think I want to find someone I can love as my lover, husband, not only my best mate. You know it's not the same, you have to."

He wasn't sure that he did, the whole concept still seemed fake to the core, but he hardly had any other choice but to let her go. And he started thinking that maybe, just maybe, it was not the concept of romance that was off, but rather the fault lay at his side.

~

By the time he met Vin he was done with police training and trying to find the love of his life, half convinced he will stay single or drifting between short and mostly sweet relationships forever. He almost made peace with it too, but then, on Toby's stupid birthday party, which he was mostly invited to act like the friendly goof between different groups of Toby's and his wive's friends, he met Vin. He was a touch too drunk by then, singing karaoke with a gusto to the great amusement of his older and newer friends and Vin somehow found his silliness endearing and kept egging him on. They sang together, hardly in-key duets until Toby kicked them both out and Greg walked Vin home, both of them still humming and singing quietly, giggling more than actually sticking to the lyrics.

They got married just a bit over a year later and Toby still claimed it was all thanks to him. Oddly enough, he took no credit for the divorce, which in a way was also only possible because of him. After all, no meeting would mean no marriage to be broken. Everyone however happily blamed this one on Vin and her inability to stay faithful to Greg.

Greg usually avoided the subject, vaguely agreeing with the main consensus and not mentioning how much he considered himself to be responsible for the end of their relationship.

He loved Vin, he remembers the excitement of discovering how much they had in common, how great they fit, how amazing she was and how Toby called them out for being disgustingly inseparable. And how it all faded. How he got more work, more friends, more people to worry about and how he failed to keep enough place in his life for her.

How she was able to perhaps accept his love as it was, but not to share with others so freely. Especially since some of his friends were more time demanding than others.

He never called her out on her affairs, she never called him out on his attachment to Sherlock, but as two long time friends, they fully understood all the silences surrounding the last years of their marriage and their divorce.

~

The thing with Mycroft was... unexpected. That was so far the most accurate description Greg found for it. He couldn't even really find a proper name for the sort of relationship they've had, he still kept on referring to it in his head as _'the thing with Mycroft'_. It sounded vague at best and ridiculous at most, but an affair sounded sordid and romance suggested everything Greg was always accused of failing at providing. In the privacy of his own thoughts Greg guessed the closest term would be friends with benefits, but it also made them sound half their age and twice as adventurous.

Their friendship built slowly, but steadily somewhere between the staged kidnapping, the sharing of reports and watching over Sherlock. Mycroft seemed shocked at the notion, when he finally realized, but Greg took it in stride. He was great at making friends after all, he was hardly surprised at it at this point. Things got more complicated, when three months after Sherlock's funeral they somehow ended in bed.

"This in no way changes our lack of romantic relationship," Mycroft stated promptly, though it fell short of his usual prim tone, since his breath was still rather laboured.

Greg thought about it, catching his own breath and enjoying the comfort of Mycroft's luxurious bed.

"I am in no way interested in such a thing, nor am I particularly capable of such attraction," Mycroft continued in somewhat rehearsed voice, but Greg paid little mind to his tone, because that... That sounded rather brilliant, actually.

"Me neither," he said wonderingly after a moment of silence and promptly ignored Mycroft's disbelieving scoff, crawling further under the duvet and turning on his side. "But I'm not moving until the morning, your bed is way too comfortable."

He was sure Mycroft rolled his eyes at him and continued before the man managed to lunge into pointless protests:

"And we should have sex again at some point."

The change of shifts in Mycroft's brain was almost loud enough to hear.

"That was not the part I protested."

"Good."

He realised Mycroft was waiting for another shoe to drop after this or for Greg to finally snap and demand affection and romance Mycroft was neither willing nor able to provide. Waiting for Greg to call him cold-hearted or robotic, unhuman, but Greg just waited it out, enjoying the switch of the usual pace of his relationships and the safety it provided. Eventually they both settled and were able to provide a united front to the probing Sherlock confronted them with, when he finally deduced it over two months after his return from the dead.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [my tumblr](http://lordnochybaty.tumblr.com/) or come to my [ace side blog](http://acesthetically-pleasing.tumblr.com/) for more aspec goodies :)


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